Conference call with Ava
Today I had my first conference call with Ava, the Little Inventor of the Cleaner Picker Upper. It was great to finally get to meet her in person (well, virtually anyhow…) and exchange ideas with her.
Her teacher, Mr. Ashley and Jill Bennison of Little Inventors were there to facilitate the call. Ava seemed pretty happy with my rendition of her original idea (so far anyway). When I asked Ava about other ideas that came to her mind when she was creating the original concept of the CPU, she did mention that the idea of propelling the vessel with a kind of “whale tail” instead of a conventional propeller had crossed her mind. I found this idea quite interesting. I remember reading in some scientific magazine or journal that the swimming motion is one of the most efficient way (less energy consumption) to move an object (fish, underwater vessel, etc.) in water. On one hand I am happy that she chose to use a propeller since it was easier to make a model, although I must admit that she triggered my curiosity. I might revisit this idea on a future project. I also told her that making a model of her invention had forced me to develop new maker skills, particularly in the area of “sculpting” artistic shapes in 3D on the computer. As a matter of fact I subsequently applied this newly acquired skill to the other Little Inventors project I am working on (ref: the Clean Machine). Thanks Ava !
